117A Spring 2011 Chinese Popular Culture

History
117A

This course satisfies the Pre-Modern Requirement for the History Major.

It is impossible to understand Chinese history and culture without knowing what ordinary people thought, felt, and believed. Most scholarship on China has ignored this fact; the present course, by contrast, is based on it. Traditional Chinese popular culture is both fascinating and accessible. Studying it deepens the understanding of those with a serious interest in Chinese civilization, and provides a fascinating introduction for those who know little about China. We will cover the following subjects: 1) the built environment--villages, houses, temples; 2) village festivals and household rituals; 3) the rituals and scriptures of cults to popular deities; 4) operas, storytelling, and other forms of village entertainment; and 5) popular visual arts. Since much important material is non-verbal, I use many slides and video clips. We will not deal with the world of the modern mass media; our focus will be on traditional popular culture in all its forms, which still survives to a greater or less degree everywhere Chinese is spoken.